![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Live-Blogging Kalamazoo: Thursday 15:30
Celebrations at Court
“Ærest þa Laues heo Weorpen”: Feasting Gone Wrong in Laȝamon’s Brut -- Noah G. Peterson, Texas A&M Univ.
(Text is a semi-legendary chronicle of early Britain, including Arthurian material. The quote in the title translates "first, they threw the loaves".) The paper concerns differences in the text between Wace's earlier chronicle and La3amon's version concerning the origins of the Round Table. Though La3amon writes in Middle English, the underlying culture is still heavily Norman influenced. The Round Table was one of Wace's additions to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Arthurian material. A possible inspiration for the table is mention of two round tables inscribed with maps listed in Charlemagne's will. La3amon is one of several authors who elaborates on the table motif. In Wace's story, after Arthur has subdued his realm, he creates the Round Table for social engineering of equiality among his followers. La3amon presents a more violent origin story, detailing how during a banquet the food was carried out according to rank which angered people resulting in a food fight and deadly carnage. Arthur brings in an army to subdue the hostilities and institutes harsh punishments for those who participated. Then the Round Table is suggested by a court craftsman and an enormous table that can seat the whole court equally. There's an underlying taste of xenophobia in that the fight was begun by "uncouth foreigners" and settled by Arthur's own men. The paper's author views this as a position that the "forced assimilation" of a highly diverse population in Arthurs court was seen to be inherently flawed, hence breaking out in violence.
Courtly Celebrations at the Heavenly Court: The Court de paradis and Eructavit -- Kathy M. Krause, Univ. of Missouri–Kansas City
Scenes of celebrations at royal courts are so ubiquitous in medieval French literature, it spawned sub-genres both high and low of parallel celebrations, including portraying courtly celebratoins in heaven. E.g., taking an image from psalm 44, Eructavit portrays the "marriage" of Christ and the Church as a courtly celebration (including King David as jongleur performing the psalm). Similarly, the Court de paradis reinterprets the litany of the saints as a series of courtly entertainments: dances, verses, etc.. Parallels: celebration is announced well in advance so that all may attend and witness (cf., the prophets predicting the coming of Christ). The CdP doesn't belabor the allegory, rather the textual narrator presents it as a straightforward "real" event. In contrast, the Eructavit is explicitly presented as allegory.
The paper's presenter will argue for female authorship of the CdP. The context of the composition might been narrowed by the specifics of which saints are mentioned by name, but in general they are the standard default set, though some temporal positioning can be identified. But there are clearly different treatments of male and female saints, with the former generally being listed only by name, but the latter being given detailed descriptions of their appearance and clothing and personalities. This privileged focus on the female saints is continued in how they are greeted especially by Jesus and the Virgin. There is also a grammatical anomaly in the section addressing the married women saints where the narrative voice addresses "you (plural) the married women" but then switches to the expected "they", thus implying that the intended audience was a woman, and a married woman at that. Both the CdP and the Eructavit focus on celebrating marriage and married women in the guise of allegorical celebrations, suggesting they both were intended for a female patron or audience. (Various guesses are offered as to a specific intended audience. The argument for female authorship seems to be implicity in the greater focus and detail -- in a positive context -- on female-gendered attributes and characteristics.)
Courtly Menus, Culinary Meanings -- Sarah Gordon, Utah State Univ.
Alas, this paper was withdrawn at the last minute. (And the session organizer was Not Happy.)
Hungarian Goulash: The Tours Banquet, 1458 -- Wendy Pfeffer
(Correction: date was 1457)
The text this paper is looking at is a detailed list of the service of the banquet. This was served by the Count of Foix to Hungarian emissaries, present for marriage negotiations. The author of the description (Esquerrier) appears likely to have been an eyewitness. There's a strong focus on the entremets (entertainments). These entertainments emphasize the aristocratic nature of the event but also display the purpose of the event. The organization would involve a head table for the special guests and a great display of serving dishes. There is a detailed order of service described (not included in handout).
The French order of service was organized differently from English style (which had a variety of dishes in each course), in having different types of the same cateogry of dish in each course, e.g. a course of various types of game or of various pies and tarts.
The detailed description of this feat is repeated by at least one other author attributed to a different event, suggesting that the text may have come to be treated as a set piece to be recycled in literature. But the Tours feast includes a parallel for the final entremet of an earlier banquet in which the guests swear an oath on a presentation of a pheasant or peacock. Evidently the oath-on-the-bird is a common motif in this context whose origins have yet to be tracked down.
And because many of my readers will want to track down the original text, the handout notes the following sources:
(original)
Arnaud Esquerrier and Miégeville. Chroniques romanes des comtes de Foix composée au 15e siècle par Arnaud Esquerrier et Miégeville, ed. Félix Pasquier et Henri Courteault. Foix: Gadrat ainé; Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1895. Rpt. Nimes: C. Lacour, 1999.
(translation)
Bec, Pierre, ed. Anthologie de la prose occitane du Moyen Age (XIIe-XVe siècle), ed. Pierre Bec, t. 2. Valdarias: Vent terral, 1987.
“Ærest þa Laues heo Weorpen”: Feasting Gone Wrong in Laȝamon’s Brut -- Noah G. Peterson, Texas A&M Univ.
(Text is a semi-legendary chronicle of early Britain, including Arthurian material. The quote in the title translates "first, they threw the loaves".) The paper concerns differences in the text between Wace's earlier chronicle and La3amon's version concerning the origins of the Round Table. Though La3amon writes in Middle English, the underlying culture is still heavily Norman influenced. The Round Table was one of Wace's additions to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Arthurian material. A possible inspiration for the table is mention of two round tables inscribed with maps listed in Charlemagne's will. La3amon is one of several authors who elaborates on the table motif. In Wace's story, after Arthur has subdued his realm, he creates the Round Table for social engineering of equiality among his followers. La3amon presents a more violent origin story, detailing how during a banquet the food was carried out according to rank which angered people resulting in a food fight and deadly carnage. Arthur brings in an army to subdue the hostilities and institutes harsh punishments for those who participated. Then the Round Table is suggested by a court craftsman and an enormous table that can seat the whole court equally. There's an underlying taste of xenophobia in that the fight was begun by "uncouth foreigners" and settled by Arthur's own men. The paper's author views this as a position that the "forced assimilation" of a highly diverse population in Arthurs court was seen to be inherently flawed, hence breaking out in violence.
Courtly Celebrations at the Heavenly Court: The Court de paradis and Eructavit -- Kathy M. Krause, Univ. of Missouri–Kansas City
Scenes of celebrations at royal courts are so ubiquitous in medieval French literature, it spawned sub-genres both high and low of parallel celebrations, including portraying courtly celebratoins in heaven. E.g., taking an image from psalm 44, Eructavit portrays the "marriage" of Christ and the Church as a courtly celebration (including King David as jongleur performing the psalm). Similarly, the Court de paradis reinterprets the litany of the saints as a series of courtly entertainments: dances, verses, etc.. Parallels: celebration is announced well in advance so that all may attend and witness (cf., the prophets predicting the coming of Christ). The CdP doesn't belabor the allegory, rather the textual narrator presents it as a straightforward "real" event. In contrast, the Eructavit is explicitly presented as allegory.
The paper's presenter will argue for female authorship of the CdP. The context of the composition might been narrowed by the specifics of which saints are mentioned by name, but in general they are the standard default set, though some temporal positioning can be identified. But there are clearly different treatments of male and female saints, with the former generally being listed only by name, but the latter being given detailed descriptions of their appearance and clothing and personalities. This privileged focus on the female saints is continued in how they are greeted especially by Jesus and the Virgin. There is also a grammatical anomaly in the section addressing the married women saints where the narrative voice addresses "you (plural) the married women" but then switches to the expected "they", thus implying that the intended audience was a woman, and a married woman at that. Both the CdP and the Eructavit focus on celebrating marriage and married women in the guise of allegorical celebrations, suggesting they both were intended for a female patron or audience. (Various guesses are offered as to a specific intended audience. The argument for female authorship seems to be implicity in the greater focus and detail -- in a positive context -- on female-gendered attributes and characteristics.)
Courtly Menus, Culinary Meanings -- Sarah Gordon, Utah State Univ.
Alas, this paper was withdrawn at the last minute. (And the session organizer was Not Happy.)
Hungarian Goulash: The Tours Banquet, 1458 -- Wendy Pfeffer
(Correction: date was 1457)
The text this paper is looking at is a detailed list of the service of the banquet. This was served by the Count of Foix to Hungarian emissaries, present for marriage negotiations. The author of the description (Esquerrier) appears likely to have been an eyewitness. There's a strong focus on the entremets (entertainments). These entertainments emphasize the aristocratic nature of the event but also display the purpose of the event. The organization would involve a head table for the special guests and a great display of serving dishes. There is a detailed order of service described (not included in handout).
The French order of service was organized differently from English style (which had a variety of dishes in each course), in having different types of the same cateogry of dish in each course, e.g. a course of various types of game or of various pies and tarts.
The detailed description of this feat is repeated by at least one other author attributed to a different event, suggesting that the text may have come to be treated as a set piece to be recycled in literature. But the Tours feast includes a parallel for the final entremet of an earlier banquet in which the guests swear an oath on a presentation of a pheasant or peacock. Evidently the oath-on-the-bird is a common motif in this context whose origins have yet to be tracked down.
And because many of my readers will want to track down the original text, the handout notes the following sources:
(original)
Arnaud Esquerrier and Miégeville. Chroniques romanes des comtes de Foix composée au 15e siècle par Arnaud Esquerrier et Miégeville, ed. Félix Pasquier et Henri Courteault. Foix: Gadrat ainé; Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1895. Rpt. Nimes: C. Lacour, 1999.
(translation)
Bec, Pierre, ed. Anthologie de la prose occitane du Moyen Age (XIIe-XVe siècle), ed. Pierre Bec, t. 2. Valdarias: Vent terral, 1987.